I woke up to ice inside the windows this morning

[iceyniceyspicey]

Single glazed house with loads of windows. Freezing as can be. We don't even have central heating, just some archaic vent system and no fireplace or chimney.

I have electric blankets on 2 beds (so we are sleeping together for warmth) and I put sheets over the bottom bunk bed like a den for warmth. throws on every bed (thank you charity shop! I even asked around and got an extra quilt for the settee) we don't have carpet, only in one bedroom and we kept the cut offs for next to my bed (like a runner) and a small mat downstairs.
make shift draught excluders made from old clothes stuffed inside pillowcases.
I hang coats on the back door and lift the mat up to help the edges of the door stop being so draughty.
we bought an airfryer to jeep costs down but now we can't use the heat from the oven (with a broken door that has to be propped shut. but it cane with the house so it's good enough for now)

it's so cold and my toddler refuses socks and lately trousers too! I have a pair of fleece lined overalls for nursery kids to play in the mud. I forget what they are called and I tried to keep him in that but he is so upset pulling it off.
he pulls his socks off and it's freezing (his first proper words aww rolling eyes)

Every window has terrible condensation. Soaking water droplets all over every single one. it takes 3 towels to do upstairs and I have to open the windows to air it out.
Dehumidifiers are out of stock except 300 with I can't afford right now. I need a new oven more anyway!

i feel like a real failure.
Me and my dh spent the last almost 10 years saving up for this house. living in a tiny horrible flat to save on rent. no holidays or driving or luxuries and we managed it.
now the prices are going up and up I can't see us being able to replace the windows for years. I'm wary of debt too, his job isn't as secure as it was pre covid.

just here to rant really

This isn't really an option. Being a landlord entails lots of legal responsibilities, and it sounds like the house isn't really up to scratch to be considered 'fit' to let at present.
There are loads of other things the OP can do which'll improve the situation - secondary glazing of some kind + dehumidifying will make a huge difference.
I've used bubble-wrap successfully in the past - it lets the light in but also protects your privacy). Currently have a sheet of very thin foam attached to the window glass in most rooms, having left it loose (untaped) at the bottom so I can wipe away any moisture which builds up there.If I'd bought the house I'd be tempted to invest in acrylic sheets cut to the exact size of each window (like the magnet-glazing option mentioned by a PP)

Please don’t leave a window open & stuff the crack with loft insulation. It will get very damp

Amazing how many homes have terrible condensation & head straight for a dehumidifier. There is a much better way of dealing with it If you have an extract fan remove it & replace with a single room heat recovery fan they do work 247 & cheaper to rim than a dehumidifier.

So has everyone else why do you think you’re so special

I agree with checking out if there are grants available. Last year I got a single glazed window replaced, most of the cost was covered. People think that they are just for those on very low incomes, but there are 'green' grants to higher energy efficiency.

Don’t be a cunt

Everyone else does not have ice inside. You can apologise for your nasty, unhelpful and incorrect comment later.

I was just offering sound scientific advice A problem with a dehumidifier is they have to be emptied regularly unless drainage is provided so you cannot leave it unmanned if you go away for a period of time, whilst what I have written about, just quietly does it’s job 365 days a year.

Ok I get the point about renting out not being ideal

op do you have family you can live with? If you’re in a home that’s actually zero or below inside , which it must be for ice to be forming, then your health is at significant risk. Mould will start to form as well and cause additional risks.

people mean well but bubble wrap isn’t going to heat your home and as you have already said you can’t afford a dehumidifier that’s not going to help either, but it wouldn’t warm your home anyway, not when it’s already this cold inside.

are you sure you are claiming everything you’re entitled to? Is there any way either i]of you can do some additional work, like on a weekend or evening, just to earn some money to run a little fan heater? Even one day a week at min wage would give you about 80 quid before any taxes..

also could you free up some cash by starting to use some food banks or community larders, then use rhe money for heating?

Can you get some evening/weekend work? 4h twice a week in a pub or shop will bring in 80 quid a week which you could spend on extra heating. What temperature is your home?

All that condensation is coming from somewhere, are you drying clothes indoors? If so choose one room to do that and get the windows open, block any gap under the door to try and stop the rest of the house losing heat.

When you first get the dehumidifier working, it’s surprisingly quick it fills up every couple of hours, but after a day or so, it’s every twelve hours, then in our house once a day.

we have ours on constantly from October to about April, yes it’s a 200watt one, which is around £1.40 a day/£10 a week, but as if I’ve not said it before on here, we don’t get mould. In the winter I just go round the house first thing in the morning and wipe the windows, not mopping up rivers of water.

We put in extracting vents in the kitchen and bathrooms, it seemed to get worse, I don’t know why, but I’ve found that the dehumidifier is the best solution for us.

Extract fans are good in kitchen & bathrooms but there are better alternatives out there which I have mentioned several times Extra fans unfortunately remove all your generated heat, at least with SRHR units you get some of it back, but no one seems the slightest bit interested in a unit that will do the work 247 without a big machine that needs emptying As I said you can’t leave them on if you go away for days on end.

They do exude heat too though

It will not solve the issue now, but in the summer buy a dehumidifier. It works very well and has solved the issue for me.

Candles burn oxygen, when that starts depleting carbon dioxide kicks in therefore you will start the condensation problem again

The condensation issue is a dreaded problem that lots of people have.

I have friends who live in Georgian/Victorian houses who have powerful gas central heating systems, the air bricks are not blocked up, neither are the fireplaces, and they have still got the original sash windows, no condensation.

I have friends who live in Victorian houses who have blocked up fireplaces, changed windows, blocked up air bricks, have part central heating and condensation.

I live in a big house that was extended (poorly insulated) in the late 1940s, the house took some war damage,

we get round this by open fires, candles and a dehumidifier which is now £80 to buy, and £10 a week to run (it was £5.00 a week to run up until this year) in the centre of the house on the first floor landing, we also leave the tiniest ring on the stove in the kitchen boiling the kettle when we are here.

We have got to the point now with heating do we go for gas central heating which governments want to be obsolete in less than ten years, or do we spend money on solar panels (I’m not sure we can put them on our roof - grade 2 listed) and a couple of 8000watts windmills (size of skydishes) attached to lorry batteries, attached to inverters which give you proper electric (heating/washing machine/tumble driers/dishwashers/electric showers etc) and as and when things break, buy 12volt appliances like tvs, fridges, smaller kitchen appliances, charging things like phones etc etc

The only downside to free or bought from the grid electric heating is in my opinion the condensation, and once we can work a way round that it’s easier to move forward.

I would think a dehumidifier would go a long way to solving the problem now? You don't need them in summer. I run mine from late October to early April, no condensation all winter.

Why wouldn't it work in winter? We never run ours in the summer months as it's just not needed - we open windows instead.

I'd love to live in a Victorian house like you but I can't afford to unfortunately. How do you cope keeping all those big airy rooms warm enough in the winter? Have you considered down sizing? That seems an awful lot of faffing about and still uses lots of energy. Candles cause condensation too. Can an 8000 watt windmill thing run a washing machine?

She can’t afford a dehumidifier and it won’t heat her house.

what is rhe point in telling her things which might help which she’s said she can’t afford. Heating it would solve rhe problem but she can’t afford that either

are some folks so utterly lost in their own privelage they cannot comprehend that she isn’t living like this as she’s an idiot who does not know how to fix it but is living like this as they have no other option. There is ice on the inside as the house is so unheated.

when someone says they can’t afford a dehumidifier, are just making ends meet without paying for heating and can’t afford even window film for the rooms, what is the point in rolling on and saying something she’s made it clear isn’t an option.

It’s all about movement of stale air. If you insulate you must ventilate. but it’s the right ventilation that needs to be done

the poster has to start from somewhere. Believe you and me, when your house is so cold, your breath is icing up, you have brain freeze it’s hard to see the wood from the trees - we know!!

There is no magic wand to be waved in this instance.

it is trial and error.

if the lady buys a dehumidifier from Argos/Amazon and finds that it does not work, it can be returned within a certain timeframe for a full refund.

the lady’s father has had to pay out for damp issues

most forms of heating do make condensation, there is no way round that

The lady has lots of tealights and is lighting them, a decent dehumidifier on a “weeks trial” will be enough to know whether it works for her house or not.

it’s the damp that makes it feel even colder

At the most you're looking at about £80 if you did buy one. Personally I struggle to understand why someone would put themselves in the procarious position of buying a property they cannot afford to live in or even fund the most basic maintainance when a slightly smaller property would be far more affordable and easier to keep warm, but that's a whole different topic. We all 'want' a dream house. What we want and what we can afford are not necessarily the same thing.

But I wouldn't be telling her to buy a dehumidifier anyway. In the last three years I've obtained 2 of them on Freegle which I didn't pay a penny for. Both practically brand new. One was worth around £80 the other £120. Cost to me? Nothing. But of course if you live in a property you can't really afford to live in then you won't be able to afford the cost of running a dehumidifier even if you got it free.

I never understand these elderly people either rattling around in 5 bedroom houses falling to bits around them who can only afford to heat one room. If they just downsized they would be able to live like kings in comfort most of us can never afford with tens of thousands of pounds to play with and still be able to leave a generous inheritance behind.

I think k probably because they will be cheaper and not out of stock in summer

This is one window. It's absolutely soaked! There are run lines where the water has pooled and spilled and black mould has run down and stained the wall and 'sill'